Today at the gym I saw a guy doing box jumps with a barbell on his back. Instead of a plyo box (we have two) he was using a bench. He lifted the bar off a rack facing outwards, took a wide stance, did a quarter squat with his knees caving inwards, and jumped, landing on the bench in front of him with a wide stance. At the end of his set he backed into the rack. Then, as if that wasn't dangerous enough, he placed a plastic cardio step (the kind people use for step aerobics) under each end of the bench to raise it 3-4 inches. Needless to say, these steps aren't made for that, and I was half expecting one or both to crush under the strain (he went up to 155 lbs). The worst part however, is that he's one of the trainers.

this raises an interesting question:

at what point do you step in and say something to someone like that?

-when they do something stupid?-when they do something that could damage equipment?-when they do something that could hurt themselves?-when they do something that could hurt someone else (I've never actually seen someone do anything this dangerous in a gym)?

Today at the gym I saw a guy doing box jumps with a barbell on his back. Instead of a plyo box (we have two) he was using a bench. He lifted the bar off a rack facing outwards, took a wide stance, did a quarter squat with his knees caving inwards, and jumped, landing on the bench in front of him with a wide stance. At the end of his set he backed into the rack. Then, as if that wasn't dangerous enough, he placed a plastic cardio step (the kind people use for step aerobics) under each end of the bench to raise it 3-4 inches. Needless to say, these steps aren't made for that, and I was half expecting one or both to crush under the strain (he went up to 155 lbs). The worst part however, is that he's one of the trainers.

There was a gentleman doing barbell jump squats onto adjustable aerobic steps inside a squat rack at one of our locations about 6 years ago. Clipped the step, shattered his humerus against the safety bars, extremely messy compound fracture and it looked like he nearly bled out. Probably never regained full use of that arm. I heard — and this may be hyperbole — that he was in med school too. Dumbest thing is, this was a trainer recommended program.

Last year an older lady was doing dumbbell jump squats onto a bosu ball. She said she was trying to improve her "stability." Broke her fibula.

Saw a young girl trying the same move six months later, made sure to stop her.

Last week saw a 60+ year old guy doing wobble board partial squats in the squat rack with his arms so wide he was touching the sleeves. We just got acquired in a merger so I opted not to yell at him, but I did seek the advise of the regional and got the go ahead to stop him if I see it again.

The fact that you saw a trainer doing it is a touchy subject. If he ever has a client do something so stupid, you really ought to put a word in the ear of his manager. If he's just doing that with himself, he ought to be smart enough to assume the risks.

_________________don't you know there ain't no devil that's just god when he's drunk

In my gym you can literally do anything as a trainer and no one will care - staff/management, I mean. It's crazy. Our fitness manager is a big fan of what I refer to as "circus-act-training" - all these mini-ostacle-courses made up of several bosu balls, stability balls, those Frisbee looking things, then proceeds to hop, jump, and skip across them. And that's management.

The general manager trains in a group with all the sales staff and he coaches the most horrible looking technique you'll see in the gym.

Also, depends how it works but, personally as "the other trainer", I won't, haven't and wouldn't say anything. Each to their own and all that. I'll never criticise. I've actually had other trainers complain about me for various things like - deadlifts in general (you know, they're dangerous), noise from weights hitting the floor/rack/steps, and chalk.

I've had members mistakenly complain about aspects of the gym to me because they see me as a member of staff rather than a free lance trainer, someone paying to rent the space. I'm not an employee. So they complain and I mostly agree. They never know how to take it. I'll say, "yeh, really annoys me too, I wish they would do something about it".

You never can tell with trainers. You would expect that the best ones would be at the big commercial gyms, but they're mostly clueless "obstacle course" types, that do almost everything wrong. I have only seen a couple decent ones in action at the gym I go too. It's always the amateur bodybuilders. The rest are awful. Same deal with other locations I have been too. But at the little fitness center where I work, there is one who is an independent contractor, and is probably the best trainer I've seen in action. She does it with a pitiful array of equipment too, really making the most of what is there. She seems to be particularly good at getting sedentary office workers to lose weight.

Yeh, another aspect is that a personal trainer is like a sale for commercial gyms, or more income.

My gym seem to have a never ending list of new trainers who are very young and never worked in a gym before. They speak to the trainers as if the gym really wants to give them a job. "we think your special". The new trainer who wouldn't know any better suddenly feels exclusive and important and the gym managers make building the business side of it sound easy. "we have an endless supply of new leads". New trainer signs up, has no clue how to train people never mind run a business, the gym get around 6 months of their rent, new trainer can't cope with the financial loss anymore and leaves. Sometimes in debt.

Don't get me wrong, it's not just the gyms fault. New trainer or not, we're all adults and should investigate things properly before getting in to them. However, I do wonder where the gym find these guys sometimes. And I wonder why people fall for all the crap. I tell new trainers exactly what to expect when they start but many of them don't want to know.

I remember being told by the then fitness manager that some trainers were converting 80-90% of leads. Being from a marketing back ground I rubbished it instantly, not that it would take a marketing expert to figure that out. I actually asked one of the trainers she mentioned and, low and behold, the real number was 10%.

My gym is actually good. You pay your fixed rent and do what you want, how you want. Others take a percentage, give you sales targets, and influence how and what you do with clients. A previous fitness manager tried to get me to include more "plyometrics" in my sessions. She felt it "looked much more fun and energetic" - I guess constantly coaching the basics "looks" boring to some people. She wanted me to have them do hops/jumps on to powerplates and weird things like that. I didn't even refuse I just said, "OK" and never done it. Expected some kind of grief but i've pretty much not been challenged since.

Today at the gym I saw a guy doing box jumps with a barbell on his back. Instead of a plyo box (we have two) he was using a bench. He lifted the bar off a rack facing outwards, took a wide stance, did a quarter squat with his knees caving inwards, and jumped, landing on the bench in front of him with a wide stance. At the end of his set he backed into the rack. Then, as if that wasn't dangerous enough, he placed a plastic cardio step (the kind people use for step aerobics) under each end of the bench to raise it 3-4 inches. Needless to say, these steps aren't made for that, and I was half expecting one or both to crush under the strain (he went up to 155 lbs). The worst part however, is that he's one of the trainers.

this raises an interesting question:

at what point do you step in and say something to someone like that?

-when they do something stupid?-when they do something that could damage equipment?-when they do something that could hurt themselves?-when they do something that could hurt someone else (I've never actually seen someone do anything this dangerous in a gym)?

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